The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Semi-bluff
Sorkin’s ‘Molly’s Game’ spends more than two hours trying to convince you it’s better than it is
The saying goes that a man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. ¶ It’s probably unfair to say that with “Molly’s Game,” acclaimed movie and TV writer Aaron Sorkin had a fool for a director, but it’s hard to draw another conclusion. ¶ Sorkin wrote the screenplay for “Molly’s Game” and makes his directorial debut with the based-on-a-true-story drama about a young woman who ran some of the most elite high-stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York. And, of course, countless filmmakers have directed films from scripts they also penned. ¶ However, “Molly’s Game” feels — increasingly so as it grinds through its nearly two-and-a-half-hour runtime — as though Sorkin had too much freedom.
He is a gifted writer, known for his rapid-fire dialogue and lessons in morality in shows including “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom” and films such as “A Few Good Men,” “The Social Network” and “Steve Jobs.” An intelligent writer, he has the power to captivate; he also can be preachy and unfocused.
A lack of focus is the biggest problem with the up-and-down “Molly’s Game,” in which Jessica Chastain (“The Zookeeper’s Wife”) portrays the titular Molly Bloom and Idris Elba (“The Mountain Between Us”) is her passionate lawyer. Bloom grew up in Colorado, the daughter of a psychologist and professor and sister to two overachieving brothers.
She was no slouch herself, however, ultimately being ranked third in the country in women’s skiing. In the film, we see early on the dramatization of an event on the slopes that caused her serious injury and led to the end of her career.
She eventually falls into a job as an office assistant with a wannabe Hollywood heavyweight, which in turns leads to her helping run his high-stakes Texas Holdem game that draws, among other types, Hollywood actors. When her boss screws her over, she strikes out on her own, taking his poker clients with her.
(Molly fighting back against the cruel whims of powerful men is a recurring theme in “Molly’s Game,” one that resonates quite a bit in the #MeToo era.)
Molly gets into business with another powerful man, an actor she refers to only as Player X (Michael Cera), who is more interested in winning at the game — and specifically in besting and breaking other players — than in winning money.
(Another running theme is her refusal to actually name names of noteworthy people in her games, a choice Sorkin champions, admitting in the press notes for the film that he has worked — or would like to work — with some of them. It’s not at all as riveting a plot element as Sorkin thinks it is.)
Sorkin gives “Molly’s Game” a nonlinear structure, so we know early on that Molly’s poker business will take her to New York, cause her to become addicted to drugs — both to keep her going and to knock her out — and to start taking illegal rakes — to ensure she has enough to pay the winner of a massive hand if the loser of said hand can’t. And, we know, she will run afoul of the FBI, which sends a number of heavily armed agents to arrest her at her apartment two years removed from running any games.
That leads to her recruitment of Charlie Jaffey (Elba), a former prosecutor with high ethical standards. (His eventual decision to take her case, despite the fact she may not be able to pay his $250,000, is presented in the Sorkinest of ways — and, like a few other scenes, is a bit much.)
Despite some decisions by a few players that make no sense if you know the first thing about Texas Holdem, some of the best sequences take place at poker tables and let the audience in on the nuances of the game. There’s a real energy to these moments. Thus, the further “Molly’s Game” moves away from cards, the more tepid it becomes, even as mob involvement becomes a problem for Molly.
Working from and expanding upon the story told in Bloom’s 2014 memoir “Molly’s Game: The True Story of the 26-Year-Old Woman Behind the Most Exclusive, High-Stakes Underground Poker Game in the World,” Sorkin is determined to get back to exploring the dynamic between Molly and her father (Kevin Costner), which he establishes early on and revisits in flashbacks throughout the narrative. Unfortunately, it doesn’t add up to anything all that compelling.
Also not all that compelling: the performances in “Molly’s Game.” Chastain and Elba are incredibly talented actors, but both are not at their bests.
The former — so good in 2012’s “Zero Dark Thirty” and the aforementioned “The Zookeeper’s Wife” earlier this year — gives an overly amped performance not unlike her effort from a year ago in “Miss Sloane,” the script of which played like a Sorkin knockoff.
And the latter, an alum of “The Wire” who has a resume packed with fine performances — hey, even he couldn’t save this year’s “The Dark Tower” — feels like he’s trying too hard to do great Sorkin.
The pair share myriad scenes, many of which have them clashing over legal strategy. Given the gifts of all involved, these scenes should absolutely crackle but don’t.
And, for what it’s worth, the casting of the usually enjoyable Cera (“This Is the End,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”) just feels like distracting stunt casting.
These actors, like this script, probably would have been served by a more experience director — say Rob Reiner (“A Few Good Men”), David Fincher (“The Social Network”) or Danny Boyle (“Steve Jobs”) — who could have helped shape a more cohesive and efficient narrative.
“Molly’s Game” has all the fast talking and occasional preachiness we’ve come to expect from Sorkin, but he simply overplays his hand.